Chambana Sun

At its Dec. 20 meeting, the city council of Danville heard a presentation from Community Relations administrator Ashton Greer on the past year in the department and its vision for 2023. Greer described to council how seemingly random city-affiliated Facebook and twitter pages were cleaned up and linked, thereby connecting with more people.

“When I came on board in August, we started having First Fridays,” Greer told council. “We had 16 successful events with $42,250 in corporate sponsorships and then thousands more in vendor fees and event revenue. We created a first Fridays website. We also hired a videographer and a photographer and created professional content for our sites. There is a $0 cost to taxpayers for these events and 100% gain in creating positive culture in our city. For 2023, we have 12 events planned with two new themes. I'm excited. We have Fire and Ice at the David S Palmer Arena. That's coming up next month. And then the Midsummer Luau is something that we're going to do in downtown. We’re going to have like a hog roast and Hawaiian parties. So I'm excited for that as well.”

Greer also told council her department also created an internal press release process to curate and coordinate information from all departments, as well as setting up a text alert system for residents to be a part of. The plan for the future involves getting more residents into the neighborhood associations that have grown since the pandemic, making sure those groups can get their voices heard. She said the department is also focused on improving and revitializing the downtown area to bring in more people and further grow community pride.

Council was told since August of 2021 Community Relations created and posted 17 different videos showcasing and advertising the city and all it has to offer. It has also started Postive News, a weekly proclamation of good things or people in the community.

In other business, council voted to approve its 2022 tax levy.

Council will meet again at 6 p.m. on Jan. 17 at the Robert E. Jones Municipal Building on 17 West Main St.

Aldermen Sherry Pickering, Heidi Wilson, and Robert Williams were absent from the meeting